A DNA test for eye colour

Police with no leads can now predict the eye colour of their suspect from DNA recovered at the crime scene. It’s the first time such a tool has been available.

Scientists have developed IrisPlex, which can predict with 94 per cent accuracy whether a person has blue or brown eyes from a sample of DNA.

It is the first validated tool to help police home in on a possible suspect by predicting a visible trait. This could be useful in cases where police have DNA from a crime scene, but can’t find a match on a DNA database. It is not accurate enough to secure convictions in court, however.

IrisPlex examines six single-letter variations in DNA, known as single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), which have been strongly linked to eye colour, and categorises them as blue, brown or “undefined” – an intermediate colour such as green, grey, or a mix of colours. Learn more here.

Incredible Ball Boy Catch

The nervous system is composed of special cells called neurons which send electrical messages around the body.

Reflexes are very quick, unconscious, and automatic responses to stimuli. They generally involve three neurons; a sensory neuron which receives the stimulus, an interneuron which passes the message on to, a motor neuron which generates a response from a muscle.

This kid has wicked reflexes!

The importance of nurturing creativity in education

Sir Ken Robinson, PhD, is an internationally recognized leader in the development of creativity, innovation and human resources.

A while ago he did a few TED talks called “Do schools kill creativity?“, “Changing Education Paradigms” and “Bring on the learning revolution!”

This is another one of his talks, it is the TEDxLondon – Outro:

How tides work

Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the moon and the sun and the rotation of the Earth. See:

Education is broken?

Chris Lehmann introduces a revolutionary idea in education: Encourage learning by allowing students to do things they are good at instead of restricting them.

What adults can learn from kids

YouTube is still popular!!!

Not long ago I told you that YouTube is popular. They still are!

According to figures released by Google today one hour of video is now being uploaded to Youtube every single second of the day! That upload rate – equivalent to 60 hours per minute – is an astonishing tenfold increase from its 2007 video upload rate.

And some 30 per cent of its growth has come in the last eight months, says Google. Just for fun, they’ve posted an animation called onehourpersecond.com to show you just what happens in a Youtube-upload-second – and multiples thereof.

Key elearning figures discussing the future of online learning

Lightning over Africa and the Milky Way rising

Every month or so, the astronauts at the International Space Station capture Earth in the most amazing, astonishing, rock-your-socks-off way imaginable.

This video shows Africa’s lightning storms and something else: the Milky Way rising over the horizon. Captured on December 29, 2011, it shows a pass from over central Africa, near southeast Niger, to the South Indian Ocean, southeast of Madagascar.

Cool!

Abuse Changes a Child’s Brain

The brains of children raised in violent families resemble the brains of soldiers exposed to combat, psychologists say.

They’re primed to perceive threat and anticipate pain, adaptations that may be helpful in abusive environments but produce long-term problems with stress and anxiety.

For them to detect early cues that might signal danger is adaptive. It allows them to react, to try and avoid the danger. However, a very similar neural signature characterizes quite a few anxiety disorders. Learn more here.